No But the thing is... Many hexes (up to 20 perhaps) behind this bold panzer division will be Soviet. I am pretty certain you have to know what you're doing but I hope these guys get some... Can they swim by the way? Well, time will tell. I will try to send the turn as soon as possible

Eh?? No, don't worry, they have not been attacked (and will not be, they are untouchable right now with the current Soviet forces at hand there). I mean, they will be isolated (just like many of their chums behind) and what's behind them? The Dnper And west of that big river quite many hexes which will be Soviet as well.

The northern part of the front (weather effects off). Snow now in Moscow area. As you can see, Marquo is concentrating his armored hordes to grab Moscow. I haven't moved yet. I will be disbanding the Fortified Regions and one rifle division will be sent to each of these hexes around Moscow. I have a thick carpet. Every single hex has 3 rifle divisions stacks. The maximum number allowed of forces that is. I can't bring more. Only fresh cannon fodder may replace tired units. These fresh units are of course in the area.

And my half-ar*** plans for this Blizzard. Just like in the real war, the main blow should be near Moscow. The most important part of the country and that's where the most dangerous enemy units are located

Here the plan is really simple. Attack from the northwest (Kalinin Front) towards Rzhev... Another pincer would attack from the Western Front. I would be threatening to bag the enemy units in front of Moscow. More in the south I should be attacking towards Bryansk. If this operation was successful I could even link the forces from Rzhev to Bryansk. But I should stop sniffing glue

In the south, on my other game the big 3 cities there (Stalino & Co.) proved to be an excellent shield for 2ndACR. The situation here is *perfect*... I should be BYPASSING these cities, always threatening to swallow some enemy units.

Hahahaha! General Winter? Who is that guy? A mere aficionado on my book. General M U D is the real deal!

Mars has been kind with me (and harsh with Marquo). Mud in Moscow area. To capture the city he should first assault heavily entrenched 3-units stacks before he gets to the city hexes... He should be doing that on the next turn (24). And then turn 25: start of blizzard. But of course he could have a snow turn (25) (18% possibility so I am pretty safe). Still, perhaps that would be playing with fire given that I will massively unleash the bears in this threatened VITAL area.

Had he been lucky with the weather, he could have perfectly taken the city, in my opinion, so fair play. This is what Marquo has to say.:

"Last turn you had General Winter in the form of 2 blizzard zones, and this turn again blizzards and mud. No snow in Russia! Mud during the summer, mud in the winter, blizzards before their time"

Random weather at work!

As for me, I was only interested in NOT having snow in Moscow area (the rest, I did not give a rat's ar**). I think the blizzard zones he is referring to were NOT in Moscow. The offensive CVs were pretty high near Moscow (except the mud turns obviously).

P.S.: anyway, the turn 18 (when I was expecting mud) I got SNOW in Moscow area. As you can see you win here, you lose there. Not to mention the 10 rifle divisions bagged in the Velikie Luki area during the Blitzkrieg when mud suddenly appeared

I made room for them. I assigned to this front armies of Leningrad and Northwestern Fronts. Along with the Stavka 4 army. Air Bases (filled with planes: IAD, SAD, BAD, VVS) will be able to start operations on next turn.

Now that 1) I think Moscow is 80% safe and 2) the Blizzard Massacres should be starting, I have to redeploy many rifle divisions. Given that I was massing my forces to protect Moscow, other parts of the front have few forces. And I need a minimum number of forces in the frontline. I should be able to have 2-units stacks (rifle DIVISIONS, not brigades) in EVERY single hex at the frontline. So a lot of tchouk-tchouk. I will be evacuating more industry, including Voronezh and similar places which might be swallowed during the summer '42 offensive. I have plenty of time though, therefore I can NOW finally use all the rail capacity to deploy the many hordes

The bulk of the rifle brigades will NOT fight. Just like on my other game they will start digging fortified positions behind the frontline, positions that I might need during the summer offensive. If I am forced to retreat that is.

In december I will create 10 Cavalry Corps AND the support units will be assigned to the lot of them too. I had used VERY incorrectly these corps vs 2ndACR during the Blizzard. They proved to be UTTERLY useless, they could not even defeat enemy ants! The lack of support was the reason. No mistake this time The corps will ONLY see combat afer having the 100% of their support units.

Well, unless Marquo is lucky (and in my opinion he deserves to be lucky ) he should start getting some (that, he also deserves it ). He has a 20% possibility of snow weather. Therefore he better prepares a nice testament...

In the end, I have to admit that I am not sophisticated at all (if we talk about this blizzard thing). I am basically a ruthless thug who will attack ANY German (or weak allies hahaha) units on sight. Not against the odds though. And I am pretty certain there will be plenty of victims along the whole front. The accountant has to shut up, step aside and watch.

All I know is... 120.000 men were added to the total pool. 70.000 reached the frontline units this turn. Ergo, if I am not mistaken I can afford to lose up to 70k. Yes, that's harsh, but as I see it, the blizzard offensive IS a great opportunity you must N O T miss. I mean, after all this is not a tennis match! It's war.

I must a) harvest guards and b) SMASH the Germans (the smashed poor souls will NOT, repeat, NOT fight during the snow and summer). Let's imagine I preserve my men... Wouldn't I lose them the same during the snow turns and then summer, when the German machine will be ready again (in other words, achieving er... nothing)? If I have to lose many men, it's now, at leat they will die KILLING decent quantities of enemies...

The plan is above. I will try to more or less stick to it. But of course a picture is worth a thousand words Marquo, I'm coming!

This turn is taking many time. I am massively redeploying the Red Army. Almost done. One vital task has been done: Moscow needs to keep the fortified positions (aka forts). I cannot allow the degradation of such forts that is. Moscow is still really important and Marquo's most dangerous units are in this area. Situation may change, right, but these forts are still vital on my book. The Rifle Brigades will do that job; some Fortified Regions too: I created them many turns ago to protect the city. They will stay here until the enemy summer offensive forces me to pull back to these fortified hexes.

I didn't know I had that many hordes Now almost every frontline hex has (or will have) 2-units stacks (Rifle Divisions). I also have sent the rifle divisions of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Shock Armies (the 2 and 3 will arrive on the next turns) to its assigned place: attacks towards Rzhev, Bryansk and west of Stalino (bypass the towns that is).

And still, somehow... I have gathered the "excess" of divisions east of Moscow... 50 Rifle Divisions + 56 Army (5 Rifle Divisions)... These forces will see combat much before the end of the blizzard. They may be an interesting reserve to reinforce the attacks here and there

Oh, and here is the most miserable Red Army unit It's not like they had to face the mighty panzers during the Blitzkrieg. Nice and quiet holidays up north, east of Lake Ladoga (7th Independent Army), hunting and playing accordions. Well, at least until the evil Finns were activated after the capture of Leningrad. And even after that they were merely pushed here and there. So who's to blame? That's what the NKVD wants to know.

EDITED: I just have rechecked. There are even more miserable units: the 198 Rifle Division. Morale: 24. But at least these guys have a good alibi. Kalinin Front, they have seen some nasty action.

No, actually he's got quite many forces. That was a screenshot before recon. But still, I will attack THAT place, as I want to bypass Stalino. This I learned from our game. The 3 cities were a nice barricade for you. On this game, I am simply too close to the NW of these cities. I must try to bypass them. I doubt it is going to work though

Final dispositions in the center (+ Northwest, Kalinin and Bryansk). Despite the arrows, NO, the plan is NOT to bag enemy units. The Red Army cannot do that in 1941 The arrows indicate axis of advance, targets. Now if Marquo is stubborn AND I manage to advance (as per the plan) I might bag enemy units if he keeps holding ground. This is up to Marquo though. He should see the threat coming and therefore retreat...

And the South, final. 2ndCR, as you can see, he's got forces, but not intimidating at all In fact, again, the place I will be attacking en masse is manned by weak regiments... No match for massive Red Army attacks His strongest forces are NE of the big 3 cities, a place I am not interested in attacking. But if the attack is a success, they would be the last elements leaving the pocket

Okay, but they are regiments so just mere speed bumps. Especially if you hit him with 6 div in each of those hexes. The only real concern is that lovely mountain brigade sitting behind the lines, that means reserve.

Regiments are too fragile unless they are the mountain troops. I see one just north of your projected path. Locate those bad boys and try to pin them, they are his only solid rock.

Okay, but they are regiments so just mere speed bumps. Especially if you hit him with 6 div in each of those hexes. The only real concern is that lovely mountain brigade sitting behind the lines, that means reserve.

Regiments are too fragile unless they are the mountain troops. I see one just north of your projected path. Locate those bad boys and try to pin them, they are his only solid rock.

Yes, that mountain units is possibly his reserve. Anyway, like 10 hexes west of the 3 cities he has at least 2 armored units. I hope he puts them to good use once I attack. This way I would make sure they get some stick too

Oh, and Crimea. Marquo has captured Sevastopol but he didn't kick me out of the Peninsule. I plan to massively attack the poor romanians blocking my advance. No matter the losses, I hope to dislodge them. I will make a deliberate attack with the 3-units stack. If it doen't work, they will retreat to make room for the guys behind them (another 3-units stack)... who will do another deliberate attack (same turn). The Romanians are not supposed to hold these attacks We will see.

If that works, Crimea should in theory attract enemy units (= he weakens other fronts), and that's exactly what I am looking for

Oh, and the last screenshot. This way I will be able to compare the turn before blizzard and the first turn after blizzard.

I plan to update the AAR at the end of the Blizzard Massacres. I would like to continue the AAR (every turn) to show what happens during the summer '42 German offensive. I will be doing EXACTLY what I did on my other game. I want to see if the monster (ahistorical massive Red Army I had vs 2ndACR) is gone. So I guess I am not the only person interested in knowing the answer. We will see

I'll ask the same question that I asked Bletchley Geek: What are your preparations regarding rail repair?

Preparations? Everything is automatic. The RR Brigades will be automatically detached from the closest HQs. And yes, I have a lot of these guys. Each army has 3 RR Brigades... 4 armies per front = 12 RR brigades per front. On next turn I will spend most, if not all the APs creating Cavalry Corps and assigning to them the support units (already bought). On the next turn I plan to buy 2 RR Brigades for each front: so I will have 14 RR Brigades per front

I was not planning to update the AAR until the end of the Blizzard Massacres but I am perplexed. 4 turns into blizzard and I almost hit the 6 million men. And I am pushing really hard, attacking absolutely everything on sight (as long as I have minimum 1:1) Problem is, if in theory I should finish the offensive with 6 million, at this rate I might have perhaps almost 7 million, that's what I don't get.

ORIGINAL: randallw it's not as if they are sitting in a field, waiting to be picked from a tree.

Actually they are And just like your potatoes or tomatoes they need water, fertilizers... which in this concrete case means they need some action and of course the appropriate victim. If you give them that they will grow and become nice Guards units.

The thing is like gardening and horticulture a lot. I have sown potatoes, onions, planted all kind of trees, plants etc. etc.